April 2011

April 14, 2011

The first of two major patent infringement lawsuits have been filed against Apple by Stanford Connecticut's Walker Digital. This heavy weight company which was behind such ventures as Priceline.com and others and originally funded by the likes of George Soros, Paul Allen and John Malone is suing Apple over its "Map + Compass" GPS based iPhone feature/app. The lawsuit which was filed against thirteen companies, singles out Apple and Google for willful infringement.

On April 14, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published two patent applications from Apple that reveal the next chapters for both a new geo-location service system that uses WIMAX transmitters and a new EMI shielding process that is needed to support Apple's desire to create ever thinner mobile devices.

April 12, 2011

On April 12, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office officially published Apple's latest trademark application for "Lion" under application 85288157. Apple's trademark was filed under a single International Class 009 for computer operating systems. The interesting twist to this is that while Apple claims that "Lion" has no specific color, the example that they provided the USPTO with is certainly green. It's like a forest green and I was actually looking for my Pantone color book to verify a specific number when it dawned on me. This is a special green. It's one the competition will be turning when they see Apple's glorious new OS debut this fall. It's called: Green with Envy. Obviously it's an inside joke and one that I like: do you?

A new series of patent applications that have surfaced at the US Patent and Trademark Office recently, clearly indicate that Apple is working on new ways to simplify their multi-touch gesturing on both iOS devices and Mac's via multi-touch and/or Magic Trackpads. One of Apple's key patents within this group of nine, introduces us to some newly contemplated methods of gesturing. The methods include the use of mid-drag gestures, microgestures within gestures, and other gesture modification motions to modify and/or alter user interface behavior. One of the gesture modification motions already reviewed to date relates to Apple's use of Spaces on iOS devices. In the big picture, Apple states that their newly proposed methods and interfaces will reduce the cognitive burden on a user while saving battery life. If we're lucky, we may even get to see some of these new gestures playing out in various demo's at this year's WWDC keynote. Time will tell.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of eight newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. The most notable patents of the day cover such things as the iPhone's built in compass technology as well as its unique nitriding stainless steel conductive bezel antenna. And yet the one patent that stood out prominently this morning was one that focused on bringing advanced multi-touch gesturing to a desktop display. Apple first gave us a peek at the iMac Touch last summer and now we see some of the gesturing that such a unit could employ. At this point in time, it's impossible to estimate when such technology will come to market – but it's evident that Apple is working on several angles to this project and we'll only see it come to market when it's actually ready to rock'n roll.

April 11, 2011

The US Patent & Trademark Office just published Apple's latest trademark filing for "AirPlay." Apple's figurative trademark, as noted in our cover graphic above, consists of a rectangle and triangle. In September 2010 Apple rebranded their AirTunes feature to that of AirPlay.

April 09, 2011

The US Patent & Trademark Office has published Apple's latest trademark application relating to a new iAd Graphic trademark to be used in advertising and/or marketing products or services. Apple introduced their new iAd service during a June 2010 Keynote. The newly applied for graphic may be associated with their iAd Producer programming tool. A second trademark filing popped up this week in Europe which relates to Apple's next generation operating system dubbed "Lion." Interestingly, their US filing for "Lion" has yet to be made public.

April 07, 2011

A new Apple patent application points to advancing the cameras in all Mac and iOS devices to include advanced strobe lights of visible and invisible light. The strobe light provides the picture with important metadata to assist in deblur operations. I'm not the biggest camera buff, but this sound like Apple is once again working on improving their latest iOS device cameras to produce better and better photos and videos as time goes on.

The first Apple patent of the day that surprised us was all about an incredible smart bezel using a secondary printed segmented electroluminescence display that would allow for hidden illuminated controls on devices such as the iPad. Apple's second patent surprise of the day is all about Apple devising a next generation iPhone that would effectively offer us a smart hybrid display that could switch between a standard LCD and an e-Paper display. In fact, it's so smart that the display could actually subdivide itself into quadrants that could intelligently switch display types depending on the content that the user is running. That would work very nicely with Apple's proposed use of Spaces on future iOS devices.

Apple has been teasing us with various smart bezel patents over the last year but a new patent application revealed by the USPTO today, provides us with how they're intending to implement this feature and the details will blow you away. Apple intends to introduce a method that employs a very cool secondary display scheme that utilizes a printed segmented electroluminescence display. Apple intends to use the secondary display to introduce a new set of illuminated indicators that would be able to morph into various controls for work and play. Illuminated gaming and productivity controls could be built into the face-side of the bezel and/or selected back-side areas of iOS devices like the iPad. Apple is about to raise the bar for interactive device interfaces that will, no doubt, put absolute fear into the hearts of every iOS device wannabe competitor.

April 05, 2011

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of eight newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our second granted patent report of the day we have a real surprise. Apple has just won a patent for an all-new Hybrid DisplayPort/USB 3.0 high speed connector. This new and extremely slim connector will work on all iOS devices like the iPod and eventually work its way through Apple's entire hardware lineup. Apple has just introduced another high-speed connector called Thunderbolt and we know that they're also working on a new fiber optic based connector for the future. Yet this latest hybrid connector looks like a winner and one that we might see come to market later this year in handhelds or in 2012 when Intel Macs debut with USB 3.0. But let's be honest here: Wouldn't we all like to see this debut on the iPhone 5? Hmm, I think that I'm hearing a thunderous yes on that question.

The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of eight newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In our first granted patent report of the day, we focus entirely on four top tier multi-touch patents that cover technology related to multi-touch displays, autocalibration and virtual keyboards. As leader in multi-touch technology, Apple definitely hit another grand slam out of the park today.

An interesting Apple patent surfaced last month that revealed their use of advanced laser welding methodologies and their contemplation of using another material for the iPad beyond aluminum. Yet hidden within this patent was the revelation that they're seriously considering the addition of a baffle system in future versions of the iPad. As Apple introduces more sophisticated multicore processors, camera optics and sensors into future iPad designs, it only stands to reason that a simple cooling system is in order.

April 03, 2011

Late last week the European Trademark Office published two of Apple's latest trademark filings that expand the coverage for their registered "App Store" trademark. The first is for their "figurative" trademark which is shown in our opening graphic above. The second covers the words "App Store." Apple has expanded coverage from four International Classes to ten. The new classes cover such things as games for the Game Center, books for iBooks (magazines and all manner of publications), education and hardware covering tablets. There's also another interesting classification that you'll learn about in this report that you might not want to miss out on. Lastly, what I like about this filing is its timing so closely after Microsoft's second objection to the App Store trademark. It's almost as if Apple is saying: Take that! I'm sure that they're saying other things, but we'll leave that to your imagination.

April 02, 2011

If I didn't carefully read the overview of a recent Apple patent, I could have easily missed the entire revelation of a new smart pen system that is being worked on in Apple's hallowed Cupertino labs. Although Apple has been amassing smart pen patents over recent years, nothing comes close to this one. The funny thing about this one is – there's not a single smart pen graphic to be had. No, this patent is different. This patent provides us with an overview, a master plan of how a smart pen could fit into the bigger picture. Apple is working on a very complex information collecting and retrieval system that is military grade and the smart pen simply plays a major role. Prior to the iPhone coming to market, the naysayers said that Apple would never get into the phone business. They just didn't get Apple's vision of "Think Different" – no matter their lip-service to the concept. Well, it's time to think different, again – whether they like it, or not.